STUDIES IN CONTRASTS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 30, 30 October 1918, Page 6

STUDIES IN CONTRASTS

THE KAISER 'VERSUS PROHIBITIONISTS. WHAT OP AMERICA? The Kaiser: Germany must win the war. We are on to victory. I will dine in Paris with you on December 14, 1918. God is with us, we must succeed. Gott mit uns. Rev. L. ji\ Isitt, 31.P.: No one can doubt the sanity of our causa. To Prohibitionists _ victory must come, bdeanso God is with us, and victory is ours on December 11, 1914. (December It. 1914, wan a great disappointment to all autocrats.) Now, the Kaiser is seized with religious frenzy, and the Prohibitionists wore at their wits' ends when 257,000 electors—a magnificent democratic majority—declared for National Continuance on December 14, 1914, at the time when the Kaiser too was crying; "Gott mit tins—we must succeed" Now, what of America? Tlio T!ev. !R. S. Gray, the Prohibitionist organiser, said before tlio monster meeting of 400 people: "For all time the peoplG of America had done away with liquor." (Applause.) How ready tlio Prohibitionists are to endorse a fabrication if they think it suits them! A cablegram published in all daily newspapers in New Zealand read:— Washington, August 30. The Senate lias voted in favour of Prohibition, to take effect on

July 1, 1019, as a war measure. And can anyone imagine the Prohibitionists praying with all that pious unctuousness so characteristic of the

Kaiser and all would-be autocrats, that the war with all its horrors may last till after July 1, 15)19, so that their pet god. called Prohibition may' have a chance of dominating America?

SOME HONEST TESTIMONY. The Eev. Dr. W. F. Crafts, of Chicago, writing in "The Continent," says: "The countries with little or no Prohibition are decisively reducing the national per capita consumption of liquors, while the United States, with more Prohibition than any other country, has never succeeded in accomplishing such reduction in the nation as a whole (except temporarily) in years of financial depression. Dr. Craft's statement is borne out by figures of the U.S.A. Statistical Bureau, as lindenConsumption of Alcoholic Liquors . in U.S.A. Areas Quantity In Year, drv. gallons, ■ 1.901 18 1,663,776,829 1916 24 2,252,272,765 Confirmation of this is further attested in this way:— Consumption per capita of all liquors. 1870 (do Prohibition save in Maine) 7.70 1912 (some 20 areas dry)... 21.98 (The N.Z. Year Book, 1915, p. 310, gives the individual consumption of liquors as: Beer, 16.6 gallons; wine, 0.-fS gallons; spirits, 1.05 gallons—a total of 18.13 gallons.) Cardinal Gibbons (Catholic) says: "Prohibition makes hypocrites of men and women." Dr. Wright (Methodist) says: "Prohibition States show more illiteracy, tuberculosis, illegitimacy, and kindred evils than any other "section of the States, and religious conditions are no jno l encouraging." .Dr. B. J. M'Namarn (Presbyterian), in the' "Ecclesiastical Review," writes: "Half of the American people arc under Prohibition, and tlio States that show the largest number of nonchurchc;oers are the Prohibition States."

In Now Zealand the Prohibition propaganda lias not encouraged church attendance. Indeed, after 112 years.of the operations of the N.Z. Alliance, onr churches have fewer members per 1000 of the. population; and this, too, since the Nonconformist Churches abandoned temperance for Prohibition. Prohibition in advocacy or praclics'i.i a worthless proposal. It breeds many iniquities and cures none, and is unworth| the encouragement of men and w"!)men who wish their country's highest welfare. --{Published by arrangement.)